What do shoppers think of AI-powered chatbots?
AI-powered chatbots were deemed by U.S. shoppers as the most disruptive artificial intelligence applications causing friction in their online shopping experiences, according to the latest research from Intellias.
Intellias' original research of more than 1,000 U.S. shoppers showed that AI chatbots are the most likely cause of friction when buying online, with 19% agreeing chatbots are the area where AI most disrupts their shopping experiences.
While 44% said AI helped retailers and brands create more personalized shopping experiences, a further 20% said that interactions with AI chatbots were the most likely stage in their online buying journeys where they were most likely to abandon a purchase. This follows separate research by Talkdesk, which found that 68% of U.S. shoppers would lose trust in a brand if it gave them poor recommendations by AI chatbots. Additionally, 53% said poor AI chatbot experiences would stop them from shopping with the retailer again.
[Read more: Albertsons deploys virtual assistant for online shoppers]
However, almost half (46%) of the shoppers polled by Intellias said they didn’t mind retailers using AI in their buying journeys if it wasn’t clunky. In comparison, two-thirds (66%) aren’t averse to retailers using AI to automate repetitive or monotonous tasks, but they don’t want it to replace human interaction.
Going further, more than seven in 10 (71%) agreed that a blended experience of both automation delivered through AI and human interaction would always be needed in retail, regardless of how good the AI technology becomes in the future.
“There’s little doubt that AI – and in particular Gen AI – have had its watershed moment, as the intersection between rapid consumer and business adoption really came to the fore last year," said Alexander Goncharuk, vice president of Global Retail at Intellias. "While there’s no denying the hype curve, AI mustn’t become a go-to catchall for plugging gaps in shopping experiences.”
[Read more: SOCi report: 52% of marketers cite privacy as top concern in Retail AI adoption]
Goncharuk added, “Each application of the technology needs to be considered in the context of the entire value chain and only deployed where it can deliver value in a friction-free manner. And that requires both orchestrating the tech stack in the right way to extract value, as well as looking at the application of AI in the shopper journey as a whole – only then will it deliver both the business benefits to the retailer while enhancing experiences for consumers.”
The report can be accessed here.